Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children)

The oboe rises by small steps while a horn plays below it, and the strings rest. Mahler marks the music Langsam und schwermütig; nicht schleppend, slow and melancholy, without dragging. Fischer-⁠Dieskau sings the first line, about the rising sun, over this wind duet.

Friedrich Rückert’s children Luise and Ernst died on 31 December 1833 and 16 January 1834. In his grief he wrote more than four hundred poems, none of them meant for print. Mahler later chose five of them.

The second couplet of Rückert’s poem reads “Das Unglück geschah nur mir allein” (the disaster happened to me alone). The opening tune returns. The flute plays above the voice, and the bassoon repeats its small upward steps.

The third couplet is addressed to the father himself, who must sink his night into eternal light. Horns take up the earlier vocal melody and the voice enters with a new line. After the words end, the violins continue the rising line.

A footnote on the first page of the score asks that the five songs be treated as one inseparable whole. Mahler added that their continuity was to be kept even against the applause that would normally follow a “number”.

At “Ein Lämplein verlosch in meinem Zelt” (a little lamp went out in my tent), Fischer-⁠Dieskau returns to the opening melody. Oboe and flute bring back their short phrases, and the glockenspiel sounds in the gaps between them.

On 29 January 1905 Mahler conducted the first performance of the cycle in the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, with Friedrich Weidemann as soloist. The concert sold out days beforehand, and tickets for the afternoon dress rehearsal were put on sale. A repeat followed on 3 February.

The baritone’s final word is “Welt” (world). The harp continues its rocking figure, with soft glockenspiel notes above it. Mahler leaves the last bar empty under a fermata.

The cellos begin alone, and their melody rises through an octave across the introduction. Winds and pizzicato strings join them. Fischer-⁠Dieskau sings the same rising shape at “Nun seh’ ich wohl” (now I see clearly).

Rückert’s poem is a sonnet, with two groups of four lines followed by two of three. The “dunkle Flammen” (dark flames) are the children’s eyes. In their remembered looks the father searches for what he failed to understand while they were alive.

Mahler was in Leipzig to conduct his Third Symphony when the owner of C. F. Kahnt called on him on 28 November 1904. He wrote to Alma straight away about a publisher “eager to acquire my new Lieder and Ballads”. Kahnt published the cycle the following year.

At rehearsal 3 the music moves to D major over harp arpeggios. The father imagines the shining eyes saying “Wir möchten nah dir immer bleiben gerne”. Mahler marks the voice warm.

From rehearsal 4, earlier phrases return, varied, around the baritone. In the poem fate denies the children’s wish, and the speaker looks ahead to nights when those eyes will be stars. The flute plays above the viola and cello lines.

Dietrich Fischer-⁠Dieskau and Rudolf Kempe recorded the cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic on 20 and 21 June 1955 in the Jesus-⁠Christus-⁠Kirche. Three years earlier, in London’s Kingsway Hall, Fischer-⁠Dieskau had recorded Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Wilhelm Furtwängler.

After Fischer-⁠Dieskau’s last words, the harp rises through an A♭ seventh chord, which resolves to C minor. Flutes, clarinets and bassoon hold the chord as the strings stop.

Cor anglais and bassoons play above plucked cellos. Mahler marks the opening “Schwer, dumpf” — heavy, muffled. When Fischer-⁠Dieskau enters, the orchestra has no violins, and they are left out for the whole song.

In Rückert’s poem the father turns towards his wife, then looks below her face, “näher nach der Schwelle” (nearer the threshold). That is where the daughter used to appear when she came in beside her mother.

The voice line follows the pattern of a children’s song, and at times of a chanted counting rhyme. Beneath it the orchestra plays linear parts at twice the speed of the voice. These parts recall the first song.

The cor anglais begins again, now over harp and pizzicato double bass. In the second stanza the mother carries a candle, and the child is pictured entering the room behind her. In Fischer-⁠Dieskau’s closing lament, she is called a light extinguished too soon.

Mahler preferred small rooms for these songs. In 1905 he chose the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal for the Vienna performances and then the Stephaniesaal in Graz. His string section had about ten first violins at most, and this song has no violins.

Alma Mahler could not understand how her husband could bewail the deaths of children within an hour of kissing his own, who were “in the best of health and spirits”. She exclaimed: “For Heaven’s sake, don’t tempt Providence!” Mahler completed the cycle in the summer of 1904.

After the voice has finished, the cor anglais repeats the opening. The cellos now play arco, with the horns close beside them. The song ends on a G major chord, the dominant of C minor.

The horn and violins play above short cello figures, with harp and pizzicato bass on the beat. In the first lines, sung by Fischer-⁠Dieskau, the children have only gone out, and the day is fine. Mahler marks the music Ruhig bewegt, ohne zu eilen, calmly moving, without haste.

“Ja wohl, sie sind nur ausgegangen”: yes, surely, they have only gone out. At rehearsal 3, a tempo, the voice returns to the thought. Much of the orchestra is silent, and clarinets and bassoon accompany the baritone’s familiar phrase.

On 10 May 1905 this became the only song of the five to appear by itself, in a version for voice and piano printed as the music supplement of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Mahler had wanted the five kept together. Kahnt, the periodical’s publisher, issued the whole cycle later that year.

In the last stanza “ausgegangen” (gone out) becomes “vorausgegangen” (gone ahead), so the parents will follow the children. Fischer-⁠Dieskau sings the familiar tune over a pulse in the harp and a moving line in the cellos.

The voice sings the last line, about the sunny heights, and the instruments complete the phrase. The horn plays softly and the harp resumes its steady notes. The strings descend to a closing chord marked “morendo” (dying away).

The winds play short phrases, the cellos tremble and the harp strikes accented chords. Much of the storm begins softly. Mahler marked the passage “ruhelos schmerzvollem Ausdruck” (restless, painful expression) before Fischer-⁠Dieskau has sung a word.

The storm is set as a march in D minor. Its key and melodic style recall the first movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony, written in 1895–⁠96. No other song in the cycle opens with a march.

The father in Rückert’s poem says repeatedly that he would never have sent his children out in such weather. He then corrects himself: “man hat sie getragen hinaus” — they were carried out. “Ich durfte nichts dazu sagen” — I was allowed no say in it.

Only this last song calls for a piccolo, a contrabassoon and a third and fourth horn. The cycle has no trumpets or trombones at all.

A high piccolo note and the small bell continue as the storm music slows. The string phrases fall in shorter waves. Mahler marks “Allmählich langsamer” (gradually slower) across the bridge into the final stanza.

The final section is marked “Langsam. Wie ein Wiegenlied” — slow, like a lullaby. Fischer-⁠Dieskau repeats the words about the weather, now over celesta and rocking strings in D major. The children rest “als wie in der Mutter Haus” — as in their mother’s house.

The cycle was finished in 1904. In July 1907 Mahler’s elder daughter, Maria, died of scarlet fever and diphtheria. He told Guido Adler that he had imagined “a child of mine had died”; having truly lost a daughter, he said, he “could not have written these songs any more.”

The baritone ends on “Haus”. The violas continue their rocking figure, and bassoon and horns play soft phrases above divided cellos.

The celesta’s short figures descend through the last bars. Low strings, horns and clarinets hold a D major chord marked ppp, with the music marked morendo and the celesta gänzlich verklingend.

In the last five bars (bars 129–⁠133) a cello melody alludes to the first theme of the Third Symphony’s finale, a movement titled “What love tells me”. The musicologist Andreas Dorschel took it as the cycle’s last word: “that death is powerful, yet love is even stronger.”

A horn moves slowly beneath the oboe’s short steps. Anderson enters with the line “Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n” (now the sun will rise so brightly). On the first page there is little scoring besides the contralto and these two wind instruments.

Friedrich Rückert’s children Luise and Ernst died on 31 December 1833 and 16 January 1834. In his grief he wrote more than four hundred poems, none meant for print. Mahler later chose five of them.

The second couplet sets the father’s “mir allein” (me alone) against a sun that shines on everyone. Mahler brings back the opening with a flute doubling Anderson’s line and the bassoon below. The vocal rhythm is changed so that the stress falls on the bereaved person.

The horn plays the melody the voice sang earlier. Anderson sings a new line against it, and the oboe rises. At “ew’ge Licht” (eternal light) the phrase passes to the violins and continues after the sung words end.

In a footnote on the first page of the score, Mahler asked that the five songs be treated as one inseparable whole. He added that their continuity was to be kept even against the applause that would normally follow a “number”.

The last couplet sets the line “Ein Lämplein verlosch in meinem Zelt” (a little lamp went out in my tent). The opening melody returns, with oboe and flute playing close around the contralto.

Anderson’s last phrase salutes the world’s joyful light. Harp and glockenspiel continue after the voice stops. The score ends with a full bar of rests under fermatas.

The cellos play a rising phrase, and winds and plucked strings join it. Anderson’s opening words take up the same rising line. Mahler marks the song “Ruhig, nicht schleppend” — calm, without dragging.

“Doch ahnt’ ich nicht” — yet I did not suspect. In Rückert’s poem the parent recalls a brightness in the children’s eyes and now reads it as a farewell. The poem is a sonnet of fourteen lines, and its last lines turn to the stars.

On 28 November 1904 Mahler was in Leipzig to conduct his Third Symphony when the owner of C. F. Kahnt called on him. He wrote to Alma at once of a publisher “eager to acquire my new Lieder and Ballads”. Kahnt printed the cycle the following year.

At rehearsal 3 Anderson sings the children’s imagined reply, that they want to remain close. The harp plays broad D major arpeggios, with soft winds above. Mahler marks the voice “warm”.

The reply ends with fate’s refusal. The flute plays a high line, and below Anderson’s voice the viola and cello have phrases of their own. In Rückert’s last stanza, the children’s eyes become stars that will shine on future nights.

The harp rises after the contralto’s final phrase. Its chord turns to C minor, and flutes, clarinets and bassoon hold while the strings fade. The last instruction in the score is “morendo”, dying away.

Plucked cellos mark the pulse beneath cor anglais and bassoons, and their lines keep moving as Anderson enters with the mother at the door. The violins are absent throughout. The score is marked “Schwer, dumpf” (heavy, muffled).

The father looks to the place where his daughter’s face used to be, “dein lieb Gesichtchen” (your dear little face). Rückert used diminutives throughout the poem, from “Mütterlein” to “Töchterlein”.

The vocal line follows the pattern of a nursery song and of a chanted counting rhyme. Beneath it the orchestra moves at twice the voice’s speed, in lines that recall the first song.

The opening tune returns above harp and double bass. Anderson’s second stanza adds the glimmer of the candle and the imagined child slipping into the room. Mahler repeats words and lengthens syllables so that this shorter stanza fills the musical shape of the first.

Mahler chose small rooms for these songs: the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal for the Vienna performances of 1905, then the Stephaniesaal in Graz. His string section had about ten first violins at most. This song has no violins.

Alma Mahler could not understand how her husband could bewail the deaths of children “in the best of health and spirits” within an hour of kissing his own. She exclaimed: “For Heaven’s sake, don’t tempt Providence!” Mahler completed the cycle in the summer of 1904.

After Anderson’s lament, the cor anglais plays its opening phrase again. Horns and bowed cellos replace the earlier plucked steps. The song ends on a G major chord, the dominant of its home key, C minor.

Harp and plucked double bass play a steady walking bass beneath the horn and violins. The cellos have a quicker, winding figure of their own. In Anderson’s first stanza the children are imagined taking a long walk on a beautiful day.

“O sei nicht bang” means “oh, do not be afraid”. Rückert repeats the reassurance, rearranging the same few words. Anderson sings the returning tune with clarinets and bassoon close beside her, and the strings play less around the voice.

On 10 May 1905 this song, alone of the five, was printed separately in a version for voice and piano, as the music supplement to the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Mahler had stipulated that the cycle be kept together. The periodical’s publisher, Kahnt, issued the complete cycle later that year.

The last stanza sets the line “Sie sind uns nur vorausgegangen” (they have only gone ahead of us). Anderson sings it to the same melody. The harp plays underneath, and the cellos continue their short figures.

The poem’s sunny heights take the voice upwards before the short instrumental ending. After Anderson stops, horn and bassoon continue, with harp and soft strings. The last chord is marked “morendo” — dying away.

The harp plays sharp accents while flutes and clarinets pass short phrases over the muted strings, with the cellos in tremolo beneath. Mahler marked the opening Mit ruhelos schmerzvollem Ausdruck (with restless, painful expression). Anderson’s part is set above this texture.

The song opens with a march in D minor, the only song in the cycle to do so. Its key and melodic style recall the first movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony, written in 1895–⁠96.

Rückert’s parent worries that the children might fall ill, then that they might die tomorrow. Each fear collapses as soon as it is spoken. “Das sind nun eitle Gedanken” — those are idle thoughts now. The children have already been carried away.

Only this last song calls for a piccolo, a contrabassoon and a third and fourth horn. The cycle has no trumpets or trombones.

At rehearsal 8 the piccolo holds a high note above the orchestra, and a small bell (Glöckchen) sounds in the gaps. Under the marking Allmählich langsamer, the string phrases become slower and shorter. This bridge leads from the storm music into Anderson’s final stanza.

Mahler marks the final stanza “Wie ein Wiegenlied” — like a lullaby. Anderson repeats the weather words of the opening over celesta and rocking strings. In Rückert’s text the children now rest as safely as in their mother’s house, “von Gottes Hand bedecket” — covered by God’s hand.

Mahler finished the cycle in 1904. In July 1907 his elder daughter, Maria, died of scarlet fever and diphtheria. He told Guido Adler that he had imagined “a child of mine had died”, and that after truly losing a daughter he “could not have written these songs any more.”

The violas continue the cradle rhythm after Anderson’s last words. Bassoon and horns play softly over divided cellos, and the celesta has the short descending figures of the last page. The final chord fades, Morendo, under a fermata.

In a footnote on the first page of the score, Mahler described the five songs as “ein einheitliches, untrennbares Ganzes” — one unified, inseparable whole. He asked that their continuity be preserved, including through the pauses between songs, and that there be no applause.

In the last five bars (bars 129–⁠133) a cello melody alludes to the first theme of the Third Symphony’s finale, a movement titled “What love tells me”. The musicologist Andreas Dorschel took the allusion to state the cycle’s conclusion, “that death is powerful, yet love is even stronger.”